FORMER WEST: Art and the Contemporary after 1989

What has become of the
so-called West after the Cold War? After the tripartite division of the world into
first, second, and third has been superseded? Why hasn’t the West simply become
“former,” like its supposed counterpart, the “former East”?

To propose a “former
West” puts a conceptual challenge to artists, thinkers, and activists to
inquire into the repercussions of the political, cultural, and economic events
of 1989 as they have shaped both art and the contemporary. A culmination of an
eight-year curatorial research experiment, Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989 comprises the rich array of
critical approaches and positions both imagining and inhabiting—with, along,
and through art—a world beyond our immediate condition.

While the opposition of West
versus East casts a provocative shadow over many responses to such queries, the
contributions to the book unfold an entangled cartography of the present that
is far more complex than any simplistic dichotomy could allow. Probing the distinctions
established within the geopolitical order, specifically that of the global
North and global South, Former West: Art
and the Contemporary After 1989 seeks to collapse the post-communist condition
with the postcolonial constellation, and in parallel, the cultural, political,
and environmental upheavals that structure the present moment with the
post-ideological, posthuman, and posthistorical formations that have emerged in
intellectual and artistic response. At stake is the aftermath of the
competition between West and East that defined most of the twentieth century; a
contest not primarily between two ideological blocs, but between two variants
of Western modernity. It is this conceptual “Westcentrism,” leaning on the
economic, technological, political, and epistemological infrastructure of power
and domination—as well as the resilient universalization of Western narratives—that
a “formering” of the West seeks to undo.

The publication, comprising
writings, visual essays, and conversations from more than 70 contributors, is
divided into seven sections, each re-inscribing contemporary debates through
the notion of a “former West.” It begins by rethinking the conceptions of time
and space that have dominated the controversial legacy of the 1989/1990
revolutions in the former East. As the notion “former” complicates the linear
understanding of time, the essays critique historical periodizations of the
contemporary and address the obsessive fascination with the past that marks so
much of its culture (I. 1989, Art, and
the Contemporary; II. Timing the
Former). Addressing creeping normalization of contemporary fascisms, neo-
and post-, the successive chapters speak of the conceptual architecture of the contemporary
and map its political economy, thinking through ways of “formering” its social
relations (III. Understructures; IV. Toward Another Political Economy?).
Related questions of power, truth, and resistance—in particular the reality of
infrastructure “after the Internet”—open a discussion of the implications of
algorithmic cultures and the posthuman condition (V. Power and Truth (After the Internet)). Its effect on notions of
collectivity and solidarity in the present, and the tectonic impact of contemporary
migration—in particular the so-called “refugee crisis” and the larger process
of global class recomposition—are then considered, framed by an underlying
question of how to construct a new “we” under these conditions (VI. Constructions of the “We”). Finally, the
prospective trajectories assembled in the last chapter (VII. Prospects) appeal to art’s critical potential
to institute the contemporary it envisions from within such cartography, and
live as if it were possible.

Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989 is a culmination of FORMER WEST
(www.formerwest.org), a collective and nomadic project of inquiry initiated and
developed by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht from 2008–2016. The project
undertook a research trajectory that was brought to life through a series of
congresses, exhibitions, publications, educational platforms, and discursive
programs realized in various solidarity constellations with artistic and
educational institutions worldwide. Leading up to this publication, a series of
public editorial meetings were held in Berlin (2013), Utrecht (2014), London
(2015), Budapest (2015), and Warsaw (2015), in which themes, contributions, and
propositions for this publication were considered in dialogue with the public.

The publication can be ordered via MIT Press. For updates concerning the publication and related activities, please subscribe to the FORMER WEST publication mailing list by sending an e-mail to info@formerwest.org.

This site is the web platform of the FORMER WEST project. The project is organized and coordinated by BAK, basis voor actuele kunst. BAK is responsible for the website content.